Climate Change, Food Costs, & Civic Courage

Drought is igniting Russia, and floods of ‘mind-blowing’ proportion are drowning Pakistan. Dry or wet, unstable climate conditions are wreaking havoc on people’s lives and their crops — not just in those two locales, but in many places around the world as well.

Meanwhile, speculators — not just the usual commodity investors, but big money players — are driving up the cost of food by injecting money into national and international markets in ways intended to make profits for themselves. But those monetary moves on the part of financiers are a major factor driving up the prices in supermarkets for people who just want to eat.

It is in this context that the Millennial Agrarians are coming forward with their solutions, producing clean food and healing the land. They are imbued with civic courage. In general, civic courage is a term characterizing the soul state of civilians who confront the problems of the world and advance solutions.

With their work on the land — in cities, suburbs and countryside, the Millennial Agrarians are demonstrating both foresight and civic courage. Many of these civic pioneers, and the models they are establishing, are profiled in my book The Call of the Land, The book is for everyone who aspires to act wisely and courageously. It shows dozens and dozens of sensible, practical, positive pathways forward in a time of profound uncertainty.

Among the many possibilities, CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) continues to prove itself as a particularly valuable form for these Millennial Agrarians to exercise their will, skill, and determination. Over the course of 2010, news stories from around North America reported on steady growth and development in the CSA model and its variations. The Seattle Post Intelligencer ran one such story a few weeks back, and reported that there are by now well over 12,500 CSA farms spread across the country.

As the economy and the environment wobble precariously, these farms — and the hundreds of other new agrarian initiatives taking root — are demonstrating the foundation of a path to a clean and sustainable future.

Author Steven McFadden

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Positive Pathways Forward

The Call of the Land, 2nd edition is now available.

The book sets out hundreds of positive, working models for citizens, communities, farmers, churches, and corporations to establish a wholesome agrarian foundation for our food, our water, our earth, our lives.